Migrant women, Wedding paradoxes

Thinking Allowed

BBC

Society & Culture, Science

4.4 • 997 Ratings

🗓️ 4 May 2016

⏱️ 28 minutes

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Summary

Migrant women in Britain: Laurie Taylor talks to Linda McDowell, Professor of Human Geography at the University of Oxford and author of a sweeping study of generations of immigrant working women in Britain. From textile mill workers in the 1940s to shopkeepers in the 50s, nannies of the 90s and software developers of today, these first and second generation migrants have been in the vanguard of a social revolution in women's contribution to the economy in the second half of the 20th century. In factories and hospitals, care homes and universities they've played a lasting role in British society, in spite of recurrent discrimination. But what do they have to say about their work and experience?

Also, Julia Carter, Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the Canterbury Christ Church University, considers the reasons why, in an era when weddings have never been more liberated from cultural norms and official control, couples still choose to follow the same assumed traditions.

Producer: Jayne Egerton.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is a Thinking Aloud Podcast from the BBC and for more details in our terms of use and much,
0:06.2	much more about thinking aloud. Go to our website at BBC.co. UK. Dindong the bells are going to chime. That wasn't exactly my first thought when the invitation came through to attend Keith's
0:36.1	wedding.
0:37.1	My first thought was cost.
0:39.0	You see, for Keith wasn't getting hitched in the registry office in Camden,
0:42.0	but going for the full Monte in Nice I mean
0:44.0	Nice it's not even on the northern line and then as I read on matters got worse
0:48.1	not only were guests required to travel several hundred miles and spend several hundred
0:51.8	quid in order to see Keith and his tedious bride Julie
0:54.6	becoming man and wife in niece. But as guests we were also enjoined to wear
0:59.0	morning suits, sport floor of buttonholes that match the bride's bouquet and bone up on the ceremonial responses.
1:05.0	Well, I rang Keith to register a gentle protest.
1:08.0	Didn't you once tell me you didn't believe in getting married?
1:11.0	You did?
1:12.0	Okay, so why are you now so busily organizing the sort of wedding
1:16.0	that would normally be reserved for a tattler centerfold? It's traditional, Laurie, he said.
1:21.6	You know, it's somehow the right thing to do
1:30.4	Well I thought of Keith and indeed the tedious Julie when I was reading a new sociological
1:35.8	review research article entitled Wedding Paradoxes, Individualised Conformity and The perfect day.
1:43.4	the author Julia Carter is senior lecturer in sociology at Canterbury Christ Church
1:48.1	university and she's now with me in the studio.
1:50.9	Now you went and spoke to all these couples and I wondered what you found out
	...

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